Best Font Identifier Site for Silhouette Studio Projects

If I had a quarter for every person who's asked me "What font is this?" over the last nine years, I could retire. Today.

But since I don't...I guess I'll just share with you how you can go about identifying fonts to use in your Silhouette projects.

There are a lot of font identifier sites out there. Some work better than others.  Some only work on a good day. All of them work better than me - because, unless it's Times New Roman, I have to be honest, I haven't a clue! 

I'm frequently frustrated because I can't get fonts to match inspiration projects I want to try to duplicate or to use to match an existing design that I want to customize.  

I used to try those font identifying sites only to be even more discouraged because they couldn't match up the font either. Well, today, we may have found a solution to your troubles with an identifying website that actually works: WhatFontIs.com.

There's no one site that is going to be able to identify every single font out there (or in your library or mine). BUT, it's nice to at least identify the more popular ones. I found this trick useful when I accidentally deleted my font files and I had to find the ones I couldn't remember.

How to Identify Fonts 

So start by finding an image of the font you want to identify and save it to your computer. Take a screengrab if you need to.

Keep in mind that the picture needs to be good quality with a font isolated and easy to read. You also don't need a whole bunch of text, you just need a few key characters. Since I do mock-ups for my customers, I generally have and save screenshots of my work for proofing. 

Start by going to www.whatfontis.com.

On the very first page, you'll find the spot to upload your image (it says "Drag and Drop Your Font Image Here").  You can also click "Browse" to locate the file on your computer.

After you have the file location, you can click "Continue".  

If you have a dark background, then you'll want to select that option before moving on. Just something to keep in mind.

Once your photo is uploaded to the website, the image will be broken down to highlight the individual characters.  You'll have several screens to go through. 

On one of them, under each letter image, you'll type in the corresponding letter with the appropriate capitalization. This all helps the system identify the font.

There's a few more instructions, be sure to read over them for any special characters or combined letters. Sometimes, you'll just leave it blank, you don't want to confuse the software, either.

Finding Fonts to Download for Silhouette 

At the bottom, you can also identify if you want to (1) display all fonts, (2) display only free fonts or free alternatives or (3) display only commercial fonts or commercial alternatives. I chose to continue without selecting, and the website defaulted to display all fonts.

This will generate a list of fonts that should either be a perfect match or a very close match.

In this case, my font ended up being number 9 on the list. 

There are several things that I like about the display options. First, it tells you the name of the font, which is the first objective of identifying the font you need.

Second, it gives you a link of one option of where to download the font.  Of course you can check other sites as well like So Fontsy. If you have a VIP membership there, for example, you'd get a discount on it. 

Third, it briefly tells you if it's a free font or commercial font. I wouldn't rely strictly on that information, but it's nice to know before you download it.

Even if the site doesn't give you a direct link, you can find most fonts by name by performing a simple google search to see where to download it. This helps if you are trying to locate a specific license type, such as commercial use. Many designers who offer their fonts free for personal use also have licensing options for commercial use. Just something to consider, you know these licensing types and copyrights can be tricky!

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!

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